Risks, rewards of being establishment pick

San Diego City Council member Kevin Faulconer answers a question during the first mayoral debate with fellow City Council member David Alvarez and former City Attorney Michael Aguirre. The debate was sponsored by the Asian Business Association of San Diego.
— Howard Lipin

San Diego City Council member Kevin Faulconer answers a question during the first mayoral debate with fellow City Council member David Alvarez and former City Attorney Michael Aguirre. The debate was sponsored by the Asian Business Association of San Diego.
— Howard Lipin

City Councilman Kevin Faulconer is the establishment’s choice in the San Diego mayor’s race after about 30 political power brokers met behind closed doors, agreed to unify behind his candidacy and then cleared the field of Republican rivals.

Faulconer, 46, will now get the financial backing that comes with that label but also the slings and arrows from critics who say he’ll carry the water for big business and give short shrift to neighborhood concerns.

There’s little doubt that the narrative of last year’s mayoral campaign — downtown interests versus neighborhoods — will be resurrected ahead of the Nov. 19 special election to replace Bob Filner, who resigned Aug. 30 amid a sexual harassment scandal. How Faulconer navigates that discussion as the establishment candidate will go a long way to determining the race’s outcome.

The city’s longest-tenured councilman has a voting record that is decidedly pro-business, but he also has a history of diving into — and resolving — contentious community issues within his district, from a beach-alcohol ban to a permanent downtown homeless facility. In his campaign kickoff speech, he twice talked of building stronger neighborhoods and spoke Spanish, a clear nod to the disenfranchised voters in the minority-heavy communities south of Interstate 8.

“I think I have a strong track record of fighting for my community, for my neighborhoods, when I’ve been on the council,” Faulconer said in a recent interview. “When it comes to doing the right thing, not only for neighborhoods but to show my independence, I think I’ve demonstrated that. If my opponents want to say otherwise, I think we’ll have pretty concrete and clear examples that show that I stick up for my beliefs and what I believe is right even if sometimes I have friends on the other side.”

Specifically, Faulconer points to the Mission Bay Park initiative that he crafted with former Councilwoman Donna Frye. The measure, overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2008, calls for some tax revenue generated by Mission Bay businesses to be reinvested in the park. Faulconer said he pushed for the initiative over the objections of then-Mayor Jerry Sanders and others.

Faulconer, who initially opposed a beach-alcohol ban, supported the 2008 voter-approved ban after raucous binge-drinking caused problems for neighbors and businesses in the beach communities.

Diane Takvorian, executive director of the Environmental Health and Justice Campaign, said the real concern should be how the next mayor will help impoverished neighborhoods not the wealthy ones Faulconer has represented. She noted that Faulconer voted against the community plan update for Barrio Logan, siding with the maritime industry over the concerns of residents.

“That community should be the poster child of the communities he says he cares about and we don’t need to speculate about what he thinks about those communities, we have his vote,” said Takvorian, whose group has endorsed Democratic Councilman David Alvarez in the mayor’s race. “(Faulconer) is solidly in the ‘I don’t care’ category. He voted no for the Barrio Logan plan that had five years of community input. …This is the kind of community he says he cares about. I just think the evidence flies in the face of that.”